Sayaka Murata

Ginny Tapley Takemori

Keiko Furukura had always been considered a strange child, and her parents always worried how she would get on in the real world, so when she takes on a job in a convenience store while at university, they are delighted for her. For her part, in the convenience store she finds a predictable world mandated by the store manual, which dictates how the workers should act and what they should say, and she copies her coworkers’ style of dress and speech patterns so that she can play the part of a normal person. However, eighteen years later, at age 36, she is still in the same job, has never had a boyfriend, and has only few friends. She feels comfortable in her life, but is aware that she is not living up to society’s expectations and causing her family to worry about her. When a similarly alienated but cynical and bitter young man comes to work in the store, he will upset Keiko’s contented stasis—but will it be for the better?

Sayaka Murata brilliantly captures the atmosphere of the familiar convenience store that is so much part of life in Japan. With some laugh-out-loud moments prompted by the disconnect between Keiko’s thoughts and those of the people around her, she provides a sharp look at Japanese society and the pressure to conform, as well as penetrating insights into the female mind. Convenience Store Woman is a fresh, charming portrait of an unforgettable heroine that recalls Banana Yoshimoto, Han Kang, and Amélie.

Convenience Store Woman

Natsuki isn't like the other girls. She has a wand and a transformation mirror. She might be a witch, or an alien from another planet. Together with her cousin Yuu, Natsuki spends her summers in the wild mountains of Nagano, dreaming of other worlds. When a terrible sequence of events threatens to part the two children forever, they make a promise: survive, no matter what.

Now Natsuki is grown. She lives a quiet life with her asexual husband, surviving as best she can by pretending to be normal. But the demands of Natsuki's family are increasing, her friends wonder why she's still not pregnant, and dark shadows from Natsuki's childhood are pursuing her. Fleeing the suburbs for the mountains of her childhood, Natsuki prepares herself with a reunion with Yuu. Will he still remember their promise? And will he help her keep it?

Earthlings

The long-awaited first short story-collection by the author of the cult sensation Convenience Store Woman, tales of weird love, heartfelt friendships, and the unsettling nature of human existence With Life Ceremony, the incomparable Sayaka Murata is back with her first collection of short stories ever to be translated into English. In Japan, Murata is particularly admired for her short stories, which are sometimes sweet, sometimes shocking, and always imbued with an otherworldly imagination and uncanniness. In these twelve stories, Murata mixes an unusual cocktail of humor and horror to portray both the loners and outcasts as well as turning the norms and traditions of society on their head to better question them. Whether the stories take place in modern-day Japan, the future, or an alternate reality is left to the reader's interpretation, as the characters often seem strange in their normality in a frighteningly abnormal world. In "A First-Rate Material," Nana and Naoki are happily engaged, but Naoki can't stand the conventional use of deceased people's bodies for clothing, accessories, and furniture, and a disagreement around this threatens to derail their perfect wedding day. "Lovers on the Breeze" is told from the perspective of a curtain in a child's bedroom that jealously watches the young girl Naoko as she has her first kiss with a boy from her class and does its best to stop her. "Eating the City" explores the strange norms around food and foraging, while "Hatchling" closes the collection with an extraordinary depiction of the fractured personality of someone who tries too hard to fit in. In these strange and wonderful stories of family and friendship, sex and intimacy, belonging and individuality, Murata asks above all what it means to be a human in our world and offers answers that surprise and linger.

Stories

Life Ceremony

La dependienta

Die Ladenhüterin

Ginny Tapley Takemori  (Translator)

Vanishing World

Kasiyer

From the author of international bestseller Convenience Store Woman comes a collection of short fiction: weird, out of this world and like nothing you've read before. An engaged couple falls out over the husband's dislike of clothes and objects made from human materials; a young girl finds herself deeply enamoured with the curtain in her childhood bedroom; people honour their dead by eating them and then procreating. Published in English for the first time, this exclusive edition also includes the story that first brought Sayaka Murata international acclaim: 'A Clean Marriage', which tells the story of a happily asexual couple who must submit to some radical medical procedures if they are to conceive a longed-for child. Mixing taboo-breaking body horror with feminist revenge fables, old ladies who love each other and young women finding empathy and transformation in unlikely places, Life Ceremony is a wild ride to the outer edges of one of the most original minds in contemporary fiction.

Rita Kohl

Aos 36 anos, Keiko Furukura continua no trabalho da juventude em uma loja de conveniência e nunca se envolveu romanticamente. Ela é feliz assim, mas desde pequena é considerada estranha — sua família e amigos se perguntam desesperadamente como ajuda-la a ser uma pessoa normal. Mas é na konbini, com suas regras estritas para os funcionários e uma dinâmica precisa de funcionamento, que Keiko encontra o seu lugar. Observando as recomendações dos gerentes e copiando os trejeitos e modos de vestir e falar de seus colegas, ela finalmente se sente uma peça no mecanismo do mundo. Com humor ácido, Sayaka Murata cria um retrato realista e satírico da sociedade contemporânea e sua obsessão com a normalidade, o trabalho e o sexo. Às vezes, mudando um pouco as lentes e a perspectiva, veremos que quem se considera normal pode não ser tão normal assim...

Querida Konbini

A Clean Marriage

I terrestri

« Les gens perdent tout scrupule devant la singularité, convaincus qu’ils sont en droit d’exiger des explications. » Trente-six ans et célibataire, Keiko travaille comme vendeuse dans un konbini, ces supérettes japonaises ouvertes 24 h/24. Elle n’envisage pas de quitter ce petit univers rassurant, au grand dam de son entourage qui désespère de la voir un jour fonder une famille. Son existence bascule à l’arrivée d’un nouvel employé, Shiraha, lui aussi célibataire. Éloge des anticonformistes, La fille de la supérette a connu un succès retentissant au Japon, où il a reçu le prix Akutagawa, équivalent du prix Goncourt.

Sayaka Murata

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